Android Me Read-aloud-through

Android Me is in the home stretch before typesetting. I’m currently doing the read-aloud-through, which is like a read-through except I, you know, do it out loud. Think of it as an audio book but with (lots of) editing.

When it comes to prose, I’ve considered myself a storyteller. That means thinking of a story as something that will be spoken, not just read. It’s a truism that words that are spoken can almost always be easily read; it is not also the case that words that can be read will be easy to speak. Harrison Ford has recounted that he once told Lucas about Star Wars, “George, you can type this shit, but you can’t say it!”

I also find that you discover a lot of phrases that a reader might not much mind but sound odd to the ear. Sometimes it’s insufficient or incorrect punctuation. Sometimes it’s word choice. Sometimes it’s because you used a similar phrase three paragraphs back and it is memorable enough to sound repetitive. Whatever. Even with a fast-flowing river of text you think is solid, a spoken run will reveal the eddies. As a writer, you strive not to have eddies. Anything that unintentionally makes a reader stop or slow down is something that needs tending. (Because the author is so familiar with the work, ey will make unconscious assumptions, so a few eddies are inevitable.)

And that’s pretty much it for now. Still a fair amount of work yet to be done, but most of the heavy-lifting is out of the way.